The advent of affordable television, or TV, saw the introduction of home TV sets that were rather large and bulky cabinets or consoles that housed a picture tube, associated electrical wiring, and signal receiving and tuning circuitry. The TV set was thus generally a large piece of furniture in and of itself that occupied a major space in the home.
Over the years, the cabinets and consoles were replaced with tabletop, or “portable” sets which were somewhat smaller and could be used in any number of rooms in the house. These portable models, however, still comprised large picture tubes, wiring, and circuitry enclosed within an outer casing; therefore, these portable models still required a sizable surface area for supporting them and, because the picture tubes were rather deep, a surface area with considerable (24 inches or more) depth.
While innovations in electronics and computer circuitry have made possible smaller and smaller sets, new technologies have led to the introduction of slim, substantially flat, television sets. For example, currently known are plasma screen TVs and liquid crystal TVs, to name just a couple. These sets more resemble framed pictures than they do the conventional television sets of the previous decades. Further, the excellent clarity and precision of cable and satellite signal communication and processing, in association with these new viewing technologies, has led to larger and lighter viewing screens.
Typically today the commercially available plasma screens and liquid crystal displays, because of their thin constructions, have been marketed for and installed on walls in a home family room or entertainment area. These installations are complicated and involve not only mounting the screen on the wall, but also the routing of video and speaker cabling within the walls or behind large pieces of furniture. Once installed, the screen is by practical and economic necessity a more or less permanent fixture. Further, such installation of the screen aesthetically challenges the arrangement of other furnishings within the chosen room.
Attempts to develop furniture-top stands have been met with only marginal success since these taller, longer screens, while thinner, can still easily monopolize the entire top or shelf of a large piece of furniture to the exclusion of other items or accessories.